Below is a schematic outline of ICONS™, our Integrated Communication and Navigation System currently
under development, which leverages shared optical hardware in an innovative way to provide multiple
functionalities while minimizing the allotment of scarce weight and volume resources. One optical system
provides the hardware to implement optical navigation (described here and digital
optical communication. Communication links are feasible from space probes in distant parts of the solar
system (and beyond) to transceivers in Earth orbit. With additional modifications, the same laser that provides a communication channel
can also be used in a lidar device for the determination range and range-rate to other objects.

The photo below displays a lab breadboard of some of the optical
components of an ICONS™ system. This early version shows an optical
navigation camera similar to one PSS has developed as part of our Optical
Navigation System (ONS™) which was developed under a NASA Phase I/II SBIR, and
which is modified for use in ICONS™.
Also displayed is an operating laser communication system (note the data
word on the oscilloscope).

PSS is developing a second, smaller version of ICONS™ intended for use in a CubeSat. The CubeSat version
does away with the articulated telescopes, replacing them with smaller, fixed cameras, as shown in the graphic
below. Pointing is
accomplished by the CubeSat's reaction control mechanism, with one camera pointing at an object near the
celestial pole, while the other points to objects in the ecliptic plane. Development of the CubeSat version
is being done with the help of local middle- and high-school students as part of PSS's education initiative.

Princeton Satellite Systems can offer you services in design and evaluation of optical systems, and system software design, in a wide
variety of settings.